Brooklyn, NY – The four Councilmembers leading the effort to restore Priorty 7 vouchers met with ACS Commissioner John Mattingly and his top staff in what was described as a “frank” conversation on the implications of the proposed elimination of the vouchers from this year’s budget. Councilmembers David Greenfield (D-Boro Park), Brad Lander (D-Park Slope), Steve Levin (D-Williamsburg) and Letitia James (D-Crown Heights) spent over an hour on Friday afternoon meeting at the headquarters of the Administration for Child Services in Manhattan.
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“We met to explain the unprecedented negative impact that this budget cut would have on the Orthodox Jewish community,”said Councilman David Greenfield. “We had a frank conversation about the injustice of balancing the city’s budget on the backs of the Orthodox Jewish community.”
Several other important points were also discussed at this meeting. Specifically, many families have already moved to Priority 5, which explains the decrease in the Priority 7 program cost from $16 million in FY 2010 to $12 million in FY 2011. If Priority 7 is eliminated, hundreds of eligible children may be added to Priority 5, which ACS officials have acknowledged and will welcome during the recertification period.
Recognizing the staggering multi-billion dollar deficit in the upcoming budget, the Councilmembers discussed what the Priority 7 program would look like next year if they were successful in persuading City Hall to restore some, but not all, of the funds. Rather than having many children thrown off of Priority 7, the Councilmembers discussed the possibility of maintaining the program but charging parents a portion of the cost.
“This was one of the most difficult conversations that I have had with a government official,” explained Greenfield. “However, as the representatives of the Orthodox Jewish community in New York, my colleagues and I will not sit quietly by while our community’s child care is decimated. Thanks to the combined leadership of Councilmembers Steve Levin, Brad Lander, Letitia James and Lew Fidler, we have kept this issue alive at City Hall, and we will keep Priority 7 as our top priority until the budget is passed.”
The city must pass its budget no later than July 1st, making this week the most critical one in budget negotiations between the Mayor and the City Council.
And all the morons that voted for Bloomberg just because he “restored” priority 7 last year just before elction time.
We are such dumb people when it comes to voting and acting as one and as a community at large.
When will we wake up and stop believing the stupidity of politicans? many people say there would not have been a guarantee with Thomson which could have been true but I didn’t see Thomson making all these false promises and playing around with education.
Bloomberg always professes to be a backer of education and transportation needs but all i see is his continuous backstabbing of our educational systems wether it’s yeshivos or public schools.
Bloomberg does not care one iota about the little people and never will.
There is still so much waste that the city can cut but Bloomberg never has the guts to cut waste because he will be fighting with unions and other rich corrupt friends of his.
Bloomberg for President? NEVER. G-d help us all.
i just wish Councilmember Greenfield would stop blowing his own shofar every time he has a meeting and just report to us who are the voters who put him into office when he has something good to report that actually happened.
does he think we are mornons?
I didn’t vote for Greenfield because my mosod told me not to. But I can’t help but be impressed at how hard he is working on behalf of yeshivas. Greenfield has earned my vote in the next election.
Luckily we voted for Greenfield. He is there for the “little guy” all the time.
As a person (or like some call me “young punk”) I’m proud of our efforts, and the community should be grateful.
The city and state are broke. Why do these councilmembers keep trying to find ways of ADDING money back into the budget rather than find more cuts necessary to balance spending with revenues. These costs should be paid for by the parents, even if it means both parents have to work. The city should not be subsidizing with money they don’t have.
All you people responding to #2 are you working for Greenfield?
I remember very good how Greenfield was campaigning that TAP is dead and that he will the one to restore priority 7 cause of his friendship with Bloomberg (King Mike endorsed him, does anyone remember?). As of now there is no priority 7 in the budget and TAP is in the budget thanks to our beloved Assemblyman Dov Hikind. Oh forgot its in the budget with a press release of all the dealings that went on in Albany.
We don’t need a daily press release, we need tachlis and that’s what counts.
I don’t think greenfeld style of doing everything in front of the lights will work
The nice style by simchs felder and dov hikind seems to deliver more
Greenfeld style is good for pr not for action